Up In Arms

What did Hillary say? Her exact words were these: "My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June." (In fact, while celebrating his win four hours earlier in the California primary.)

Suddenly, everyone is accusing her of saying that she is staying in the race because if Obama were to be assassinated, she would win the nomination by default. While I repeat that I am by no means a great fan of Hillary, I can't understand how you could listen to what she actually said and reach that conclusion—unless, of course, you are predisposed to hear everything she says in the worst possible way. I tend to believe her explanation:

"Earlier today I was discussing the Democratic primary history and in the course of that discussion mentioned campaigns that both my husband and Senator Kennedy waged in California in June 1992 and 1968. I was referencing those to make the point that we have had nomination primary contests that go into June. That's a historic fact."

She went on to add that "the Kennedys have been much on my mind that last days," and this rings true. The Kennedys have been much on my mind as well; any mention of tragedy and Kennedy in the same sentence brings me back to my preschool self, hearing the news from Dallas and seeing everyone around me stuporous with shock and grief. I must admit that one of my first thoughts when I heard the recent news about Senator Ted Kennedy's brain cancer was not, perhaps, in the best of taste. Rather, it was a dark thought equating the effects of a bullet with that of the admittedly slower but just as devastatingly fatal effects of a glioma, and mourning the fates of all three Kennedys.

What I really wanted to point out was that even if she had somehow meant to suggest that there was a chance that Obama might be assassinated, she would hardly have been anything like the first to think it, or even to say it out loud. More than a few African-Americans have admitted (e.g., from February 2008) to the fear that supporting Obama in his bid for the presidency might somehow put him in danger. Read the daily news. It is all too easy to imagine some whack job feeling compelled to pull a trigger to "protect" his racist existence. Reading the news, though, will also remind you that there may be even more whack jobs out there willing to do whatever it takes to prevent a woman holding the country's highest office. After all, women hold fewer than 15 out of every 100 board seats in the Fortune 500 companies today. (An aside: you may recall that John McCain opposed the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, on the grounds that women weren't earning the same amount of money as their male counterparts because they needed more "education and training," not because of any silly old glass ceiling or the prevalence of misogyny in the workforce.)

But I digress. My main point is that I don't think Hillary is staying in the race with the thought that her opponent might be "taken out" of the running. Secondary to that is my acknowledgment that even if she did think such a thing—and only the most bitter of cynics could believe this—she would only be speaking aloud what so many of us are afraid of, which is that the U.S. may still be so far behind other developed countries that many voters can't imagine having anyone behind that desk except a wealthy white man.